I'm one of those guys that's been around since the dawn of videogames, playing at the arcade and having an original Pong. My first console was the beautiful Intellivision, the innovative one of the debut generation. Since then I have bought and still own nearly every console made. I took a break from console gaming with Commodore's Amiga, the last of the great sprite-based gaming computers.

While I played my share of DOOM LAN parties it was Xbox Live that got me into multiplayer gaming for one reason: voice. Typing and playing are not conducive to fun. That's been one of the most frustrating parts of being back in front of the PC. Sure you've got your TeamSpeak and RaidCall and the occasional game with properly designed in-game voice, but the ubiquity on Xbox Live was what made that community. Staying up all night playing Star Wars Battlefront talking movies while dropping mines like a crazy person was always good fun. I met a lot of great people that way, many of whom I'm happy to still have in my gaming life.

Multiplayer on consoles lost a lot of it's lustre this generation with the move to matchmaking rather than server selecting. It's not that I'm against competition despite my suckitude, but I liked just staying in the same room, often with the same people, for an extended time. People came and went, you got a chance to chat and add them if they seemed like the kind of person you'd want to spend more time playing with. There is a social aspect after all at least for me.

Epic: clubside
GOG: clubside
PSN: clubside
Xbox: clubside

Steam friends be sure to check my inventory for trades or spare games I have to dish out!